German design student creates wind powered street light
In a bid to reduce the ecological footprint of modern street lighting, German design student Tobias Trubenabacher has developed an ingenious wind powered alternative called PAPILIO. When it comes to major cities today, implementing widescale sustainability initiatives is definitely a tricky task, but that shouldn’t deter us from innovating and...
Current in Culture
Asda joins the pre-loved fashion fray
The retailer is set to begin selling vintage garments in 50 stores across the UK as pre-loved fashion moves from niche to mainstream. As an industry reliant on constantly updating lines, styles, and trends offered up every single season, fashion has always been incredibly fast paced, working at breakneck speed...
Gen Z flooding to ‘lost’ music genre shoegaze to cope during lockdown
The hashtag #shoegaze currently has 31.1 million views on TikTok, with bands such as Slowdive attracting Gen Z listeners with their serene and inclusive vibe. Ever heard of the musical genre ‘shoegaze’? Despite its relatively niche cult status among dedicated music fans, it’s recently seen a spike in newfound popularity with...
eBay becomes first mainstream ecommerce site to jump on NFTs
Previously exclusive to crypto native marketplaces, NFTs could already be on the verge of exploding into mainstream ecommerce – with eBay at the helm. If you thought the frenzy of NFT trading would be a short-lived fad, it goes to show you really don’t know the internet all that well. This...
Biodegradable chewing gum could save our sidewalks
Chewing gum, the sticky bane of sidewalks and park benches across the globe, now has biodegradable ingredients to rival stubborn oil-based synthetics. Turns out the asymmetrical spots we see every day squished into our sideways, public monuments, and benches, may actually outlive us if failed to be scraped away and...
Floating Wall-E buoys are saving seabirds from bycatch death
Ornithological scientists have in essence created open sea scarecrows to deter seabirds from ending up in fishing nets. I know how it sounds, but data shows they’re proving surprisingly effective. Remember Pixar’s adorable waste collecting hero Wall-E? Well seabirds are utterly terrified of it, apparently. In response to alarming ornithological figures...
Solar Mountain to bring renewable energy to Burning Man
NUDES, a collaborative design office in Mumbai comprised of architects, designers, and builders, has unveiled plans for an ambitious solar installation to bring renewable energy to off-grid communities in the Nevada desert. After going digital in 2020, Burning Man festival could be set to return a more eco-conscious event than ever before thanks to a renewable energy installation in the Nevada desert. Anyone who follows Burning Man will know that organisers...
Chloé Zhao makes history at the Oscars
The Chinese-born filmmaker is the first person of colour – and just the second woman – to win Best Director in the award show’s 93-year run. It’s no secret that the Oscars has a complicated relationship with equality and has been criticised in the past for disproportionately rewarding white, heteronormative, and cisgender nominees in films. This is an issue that was brought to light by the #OscarsSoWhite protests of 2016,...
Hank Azaria apologizes for Apu role in The Simpsons
Having taken the role of Apu in 1989, Hank Azaria stepped down last year. He has now apologized ‘to every Indian person’ for the part. Actor Hank Azaria has apologized to ‘every single Indian person’ for his role of Apu in the long running sitcom The Simpsons. He played the role from 1989 until 2020, when the character came under fire for being an insensitive racial stereotype in the mainstream...
Seaspiracy: an unflinching look at the damage of overfishing
Seaspiracy is such a relentless ride of a documentary, blurring past so many marine-concerning topics, that it’s initially hard to know where to align your activist ambitions. By the end however, viewers will get off the ride with fresh insight into how their actions can bring about change (and a little nausea at the thought of last night’s fish finger feast). Seaspiracy was released just over a week ago...
